Annual Town Meeting: Night 2 Notebook

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Andover’s 2023 Annual Town Meeting dissolved Tuesday after recognizing two, longtime public servants, lifting the Town Manager residency requirement and considering the other 21 remaining articles on the 41-article warrant.

Just 299, or 1.1 percent of Andover’s 26,348 registered voters attended Tuesday’s session. That was down from 454, or 1.7 percent, on Monday, when Town Meeting approved the annual operating and capital budgets for the fiscal year beginning July 1 and approved electronic voting for future Town Meetings.

Article 37 to ask the state legislature to change the Town’s charter and lift the Town Manager residency requirement was the most hotly-debated item of the night. The requirement was established before Andover hired its first Town Manager in 1956, and came out of the Town Governance Study Committee’s recommendations for changes in how the Andover operates.

Before the select board voted to approve recommending Town Meeting passage of the article, a consultant told the board towns were increasingly doing away with such requirements. Bernie Lynch, who was previously town manager in Chelmsford and city manager in Lowell, said dropping the requirement allows towns to draw from a wider candidate pool when hiring a town manager.

No Random Ordering Of Warrant

Town Meeting rejected Article 34, which would have randomly set the order of articles on the annual warrant. Steve Walther, who got the article on this year’s warrant through citizen petition, said other towns had adopted similar policies to prevent “political manipulation.”

Walther noted that, based on roll call votes, Town Meeting attendance dropped more than 75 percent between the seventh and last articles on the 2021 warrant.

“Attendance declines as the meeting goes on — it’s a very long meeting,” Walther said. “What that means is any voting block — and sometimes Town officials vote as a block — has much more power at the end of the meeting than they do at the beginning of the meeting.”

Incoming Select Board Chair Melissa Danish said the order of the warrant is already discussed and approved in public meetings, and putting the articles in random order “presents several problems.”

Ralston, Urbelis Recognized For Service

Tuesday’s session opened with awarding the Virginia Cole Community Service Award to Gail Ralston and recognition of Town Counsel Tom Urbelis, who is retiring this summer after 32 years with Andover.

Ralston was recognized serving on the select board and Town Governance Study Committee, and working on the Town’s 350th anniversary celebration, among other contributions. The Virginia Cole Award is given for “outstanding, long-term contributions to the Town of Andover,” and applications were reviewed by Moderator Sheila Doherty, Select Board Chair Alex Vispoli and School Committee Chair Susan McCready.

“I’m happy to tell you this year our vote was unanimous,” Doherty said. “You may not know [Ralston], but if you have paid any attention at all to things going on in the Town of Andover, you have benefited from their efforts.”

In paying tribute to Urbelis, Vispoli said he “kept the Town in a good spot and always gave good counsel.”

“I always tried to help the employees do their jobs more efficiently and more effectively by relieving them of the stress of any legal issues that may be encumbering or affecting their performance,” Urbelis said. “And in doing so, I’ve come away with such an appreciation of the professionalism and the competence of Town employees across the board.”

Photo: Town of Andover/Facebook

More coverage of the 2023 Annual Town on Andover News.

Warrant and Results

For more information on warrant articles, see the Andover Finance Committee report.

Tuesday

Monday

Useful Links

• Annual Town Meeting info on Town of Andover Website
• 2023 Annual Town Meeting Warrant
• Andover Finance Committee report
• Information on Andover Moderator Sheila M. Doherty
• Town Meeting FAQs
• Massachusetts Secretary of State’s Citizen’s Guide to Town Meetings